EDITORIAL: News update from summer in Medicon Valley 2007

The rain in June and July has not prevented interesting news from steadily dripping in, some of it worth repeating now as vacationers make their way back to labs, clinics and offices.

Academia In late June, the Swedish government asked Lund University to form a secretariat for planning and construction of the European Spallation Source. If ESS is established in Lund, Medicon Valley will have access to the world's most advanced facility for materials research in 2017, and offering new possibilities for understanding protein structure even inside a cell membrane. Lund now needs support (incl. financial) for the final round. In Copenhagen the NNF Centre for Protein Research will start its activities at the Panum Institute from late 2008, led by a Swede, Michael Sundström, recruited from Oxford. And to facilitate such mobility, the Lundbeck fund has dedicated DKK 35 million to attract (Danish) researchers from abroad.

Industry Several companies have raised money, e.g. BioInvent, ViroGates and AnaMar, while EURIS sold shares to acquire a property for a private incubator in Lund. Pipeline status was strengthened after Active Biotech and Astion Pharma received orphan drug status by EMEA for drug candidates, and Zymenex started Phase II trials with their orphan drug candidate. In addition, Neurosearch, Rheoscience and Genzyme have reported on clinical studies.

General The recent Biopolis report rated Denmark and Sweden, together with Finland and Switzerland, among the top of the class in biotech output, thanks to "smart policies and good coordination". Denmark was also ranked by a new OECD report as the most cost-efficient European country in performing certain hospital treatments. Finally, important information for clinics and companies working with gene, cellular and tissue-based therapies: the EU has approved the proposed framework for Advanced Therapies with tailor-made technical requirements and new standards for clinical trials.

The news is maybe not making up for the rain, but at least it sets the stage for a promising autumn in Medicon Valley. Welcome back everyone! And don't forget to book 30 October for the 10 year Jubilee of Medicon Valley Alliance.

Kind regards,

Stina Gestrelius
Deputy Managing Director

PROJECT NEWS

Successful Project Manager Coaching course offered again
- register now

MVA's Project Management Network successfully organised Project Manager Coaching Course 1 during the spring of 2007 with 16 participants, from biotech, pharma and service providers. The participants expressed their satisfaction and the evaluation demonstrated that the course provided them with new useful leadership tools, and established valuable new contacts. Against this background, the course is now offered again with one additional day, as proposed by the participants. It is intended primarily for current project managers in Medicon Valley with the goal of helping you become even better in your professional role. For additional information, comments on the course and registration, please contact Project Manager Martin Anderson at ma@mva.org or read more.

Bladder Academy aims at health economy

At a time when health budgets are being scrutinised, optimum care for patients and cost-effectiveness of treatment are of great importance. Healthcare companies need realistic and believable analyses for their marketing activities, and credibility in relation to patients. Furthermore, health authorities have to justify their expenses and cut waiting lists.

One tool for such assessment is health economy using different models such as Cost-Effectiveness, Cost-of-Illness, Cost-Utility or Cost-Benefit. With this as a starting point, the MVA network within urology, the Bladder Academy, is organising a health economy workshop on 20 September - see programme here. For additional information or registration, please contact Project Manager Tove Østergaard at to@mva.org or read more.

Subscribe to the new MVA Calendar Service

As of August 2007, the newsletter sections ‘Activities in Medicon Valley' and ‘International activities' will no longer be included in the MVA Newsletter. Instead, they will be listed in the MVA Calendar Service, which is a new bi-monthly news service from MVA. The MVA Calendar Service will provide you with an improved overview of life science events and activities in Medicon Valley and internationally. To keep yourself updated please subscribe to the MVA Calendar Service.

  

MVA MEMBER NEWS

ViroGates closes new financing round with successful exit

ViroGates has closed a private financing round of DKK 14.5 million. In conjunction with the new investments, one of the largest Danish venture capital funds DTU Innovation/SEED Capital experienced a successful exit. Read more

Orphan drug status granted to Active Biotech and Astion Pharma

Active Biotech and Astion Pharma have been granted orphan drug status by the Committee for Orphan Medicinal Products (COMP) of the European Medicines Agency (EMEA). The candidates granted orphan drug status are Active Biotech's lead oncology candidate drug ANYARA and Astion Pharma's ASF-1096, which is an R-enantiomer of salbutamol. Orphan drug status brings some important benefits for both companies. Read more

Clinical trials update

Click here for news on clinical trials performed by Neurosearch's licence partner Abbott, Rheoscience A/S and Genzyme.

OTHER NEWS

Participation in the first EU HEALTH call meets with great success

The Commission has just recently announced the names of the successful projects from the first health call in April, and this year a high attendance from both Denmark and Sweden yielded impressive results. Read more

EUR 35 million to attract researchers to Denmark

The Lundbeck Foundation is donating EUR 35 million to bring back Danish researchers from abroad. Steen Hemmingsen, CEO of the Lundbeck Foundation, comments that if Denmark is to stay competitive it is important that researchers go abroad for inspiration, but also that they return and utilise their knowledge in Denmark. Read more

OECD: The Danish hospital system is one of the world's most efficient

A surprising conclusion from a new OECD report puts Danish hospitals among the most efficient in the world ahead of countries such as the USA, Sweden, Norway and France. One of the reasons is that more treatments are performed on an outpatient basis, which lowers the average length of a stay in a Danish hospital. Read more

 

NEW MEMBERS

Medifiq Healthcare

With 30 years' experience in industrialising and manufacturing devices for leading healthcare companies, Medifiq Healthcare is able to provide an unrivalled range of in-house capabilities in design and industrialisation, tooling and assembly automation and manufacturing technologies.The main products Medifiq Healthcare currently manufactures are drug delivery devices, medical devices and supplies, and electronic medical equipment.

Contacts: www.medifiq.com - E-mail: sales@medifiq.com - Phone: +358 (0)9 562 9110

Digitalpenn

Digitalpenn A/S is a Norwegian based company located in Oslo, Norway and Hillerød, Denmark. Digitalpenn A/S distributes Digital Pen and Paper products, which can be considered the least invasive EDC system used in clinical trials, as well as a systems integrator within forms processing. Digitalpenn A/S offers "turnkey tailor-made" - or standard solutions and executes project management, implementation training and support.

Contacts: www.digitalpenn.no - E-mail: norge@digitalpenn.no - Phone: +47 22 77 11 50

Lundén/Ellow AB

Ellow AB trains the European pharmaceutical, biopharmaceutical and medical device industry in how to operate in compliance with CGMP. Continuous GMP training is required by the authorities, and is also an important tool to enhance the GMP compliance level. Ellow AB develops and arranges open courses and in-house training programmes in local languages as well as international courses, seminars (Compliance Seminars®) and conferences.

Contacts: www.key2compliance.com - E-mail: info@key2compliance.com - Phone: +46 (0)8-544 811 60

KIPA AB

KIPA AB, headquartered in Helsingborg, is an Intellectual Property (IP) firm, which was founded in 2006 and which supplies IP advice in the medical device field. KIPA delivers professional IP advice and services based on a thorough understanding of the client's specific technology. KIPA acts in all matters relating to patent prosecution, maintenance and enforcement, patent infringement and litigation proceedings, patent clearance, prior art searches, and IP due diligence analyses.

Contacts: www.ipadvisors.eu - E-mail: mail@ipadvisors.eu - Phone: +46 (0)42 400 0330

MEDIA NEWS

Scandinavian Life Science

The latest issue of Scandinavian Life Science was published in July. Read the online journal here.

Life Science Clusters

The latest issue of Life Science Clusters was published in July. Read the online journal here.